Retrieval of Surface Air Specific Humidity Over the Ocean Using AMSR-E Measurements 英文参考文献.docVIP

Sensors 2008, 8, 8016-8026; DOI: 10.3390/s8128016 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Retrieval of Surface Air Specific Humidity Over the Ocean Using AMSR-E Measurements Masahisa Kubota * and Tsutomu Hihara School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokai University/ Orido, 3-20-1, Shimizu, Shizuoka, Shizuoka, JAPAN 424-8610; E-Mail: tsutomu@ mercury.oi.u-tokai.ac.jp (T. H.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: kubota@mercury.oi.u-tokai.ac.jp (M. K.); Tel.: +81-54-337-0916; Fax: +81-54-338-9983 Received: 7 October 2008; in revised form: 29 November 2008 / Accepted: 3 December 2008 / Published: 8 December 2008 Abstract: We have developed a new algorithm to estimate the surface air specific humidity over the ocean from AMSR-E data. It should be noted that remarkably reduced random errors of the estimated surface air specific humidity result from using the surface air specific humidity provided by reanalysis data. We validated our new algorithm using independent ship and buoy data. The bias, RMS error, and correlation coefficient of the products obtained using our algorithm for global buoys are 0.38 g/kg, 0.61 g/kg and 0.99, respectively. It should be noted that surface specific humidity having similar accuracy to the reanalysis data near in situ data could be derived from AMSR-E data by the present algorithm. Keywords: AMSR-E, surface air specific humidity, ocean, microwave radiometer 1. Introduction Latent heat flux (LHF) is considered to be the most important constituent of ocean surface heat flux, which comprises shortwave radiation, longwave radiation, latent heat flux, and sensible heat flux. This is because LHF contributes to the regulation of global climate by transporting a large amount of heat energy in the form of water vapor from low latitudes to mid and high latitudes. In addition, LHF plays an important role in the global hydrologic